BLUMFELD, AN ELDERLY BACHELOR
59
affair without prejudice, the balls behave discreetly enough after
all. They could, for. instance, leap out from time to time, show them–
selves, and again retreat to their place, or they could bounce higher
in
order to hit the table-top and so compensate themselves for being
muffied by the rug. But they do not; they don't want to irritate Blum–
feld needlessly. Obviously, they confine themselves to what is abso–
lutely necessary.
To be sure, even what is absolutely necessary is enough to spoil
Blumfeld's lingering at the table. He has been sitting there for only
a few minutes when already he begins to think of going to bed. One
of the inducements is that he can not smoke here, for he has laid the
matches on the night table. But he would certainly have these matches
once he was by the night table; it is surely much better to go over
there and lie down. Also, he has still another thought in the back of
his
mind; that is that the balls in their blind effort to keep constantly
behind
him
will
bounce up on the bed so that when he then goes to
lie down, he
will,
purposely or not, squash them. The objection that
the remains of the balls might still go on bouncing he refuses to ac–
cept. Even the extraordinary must have its limits. Undamaged balls
bounce anyway, even though not incessantly; fragments of balls, on
the other hand, never bounce and hence will not bounce here either.
"Up, then!" he cries, almost elated by these thoughts, and
stamps off to bed with the balls once more behind
him.
His hopes
seem about to be fulfilled when, upon
his
purposely placing himself
near the bed, one ball straightway bounces up on it. But then the
unforeseen happens when the other ball betakes itself under the bed.
The possibility that the balls could even bounce under the bed never
occurred to Blumfeld He is provoked with the ball, though he feels
how unjust that is; perhaps. in bouncing under the bed it fulfills its
mission better than the ball on top of the bed Everything now de–
pends on what place the balls will decide upon for Blumfeld hardly
believes they could work for long separately. The next moment, in
fact, the other ball also bounces up on the bed. Now I have them,
thinks
Blumfeld, hot with joy, and tears off
his
dressing gown to
throw himself into bed. But the same ball promptly bounces back
under
the bed again. Enormously disappointed, Blumfeld collapses
altogether. Probably the ball only looked around overhead and didn't
like it. Now the other one follows it, too, and, of course, remains
below for it is better down there. "Now I'll have these drummers here
all
night," thinks Blumfeld, biting his lips and shaking his head.
He
is
sad without really knowing how the balls could bother him
during the night. He sleeps excellently well and will surely be able
to
overlook the slight noise. To make sure of this, he shoves two
